CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 160 km round trip from Kakopetriá - roughly 3 h 17 in the saddle. On the way it passes Church of Panayia, Church of Ayia Sotira and back through Church of Panayia. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Troodos mountains rise in the middle of Cyprus, covered in black pine, oak and cedar, with the summit of Mount Olympus at 1,952 metres, which gets snow in winter and has a small ski area. Hidden in the villages of the range are ten small churches that UNESCO listed in 2001, because their walls hold one of the finest collections of Byzantine and post-Byzantine wall paintings in the world, dating from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. The label does not say which church this is, and there are several dedicated to Panayia, the Virgin, so I will describe the group, which is what makes any one of them special.
Read the complete Church of Panayia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Panayia is where the day begins. Next is Church of Panayia.
Cyprus has a church for every season, and the finest are hidden in the folds of the Troodos mountains. These small, plain stone chapels, with steep timber roofs that stretch over the older walls like a wide-brimmed hat to shed the winter snow, hide inside a world of colour: Byzantine frescoes, painted from the eleventh century to the sixteenth, of saints with huge dark eyes, scenes from the Gospels and the Virgin enthroned. A group of these painted churches in the Troodos region was listed as a World Heritage property in 1985. The Panayia, the Virgin, is the dedication of many of them, and the stop on this ride is among the foothills on the northern side of the range.
Read the complete Church of Panayia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Panayia comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of Ayia Sotira.
This point lies in the northern foothills of the Troodos range, in a landscape of dry stone terraces, carob and olive trees, and villages that tilt down towards the Nicosia plain. What I can say is that the villages around it, Peléndri and Kyperoúnta among them, belong to one of the richest church regions in the eastern Mediterranean. The Troodos painted churches, ten of them on the UNESCO list, are small, steep-roofed stone buildings that hide Byzantine frescoes inside, and one of them, the Timios Stavros, stands at Peléndri.
Read the complete Church of Ayia Sotira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of Ayia Sotira. Next is back through Church of Panayia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Panayia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of Panayia, late in the day.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Panayia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of Panayia. That is the ride.
Church of Panayia → Church of Panayia is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Panayia → Church of Ayia Sotira is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Ayia Sotira → back through Church of Panayia is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Panayia → Church of Panayia is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.